LGBTQ advocates plan for new day in church

The Rev. Michele Johns shares the grief many United Methodists feel in seeing churches withdraw from the denomination.

But the pastor and social worker also shares the joy many of her fellow LGBTQ United Methodists and their allies feel at the prospect that the denomination is becoming a more inclusive and affirming church.

“I have hope, and that hope goes beyond The United Methodist Church, because (LGBTQ) people are here,” said Johns, pastor for congregational care and reconciling ministries at Silver Spring United Methodist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“We are called by God; we are loved by God; we’re in the churches and in the community and always have been.”

Johns was among the more than 280 people who gathered in person — alongside about 100 online — for the Reconciling Ministries Network’s 2023 Convocation. The Oct. 13-15 gathering at First United Methodist Church in Charlotte brought together United Methodists from the U.S., Kenya and the Philippines, as well as Methodists from the first reconciling congregation in Brazil.

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